The efficacy of methods of historical anthropology actively implemented in present-day historical studies and the social request to research on the history of entrepreneurship enable us to address the issue of merchants’ professional knowledge and skills. Although this topic has been examined for many years, the implementation of merchants’ knowledge in this estate’s business activity remains poorly studied. Great opportunities for investigating this problem are provided by personal sources, namely, by merchants’ private correspondence. Due to them, one can better understand the merchants’ business world, their everyday concerns and thoughts. Such sources, especially those related to the merchant milieu of pre-reform Russia, are extremely scarce. One of these rarities is the 18th–19th century epistolary corpus of the Buldakov family from Veliky Ustyug. Its analysis allows us to understand that the success of a merchant in trading activities depended primarily on his experience, education and a set of special personal qualities. The abilities to conduct a thorough analysis of market trends, to collect the necessary information, to transmit it in a timely manner, to systematize and draw adequate conclusions were most important. This demonstrated availability of analytical and critical thinking, a broad outlook (ranging from specific knowledge of the postal service to understanding the impact of the international situation on the entrepreneurial activity in different countries) and the ability to implement the experience. A significant element of the success of trading was the capability to find mutual understanding with people of different status and occupations. All this, along with the merchant’s organizing abilities, ensured the effective functioning of the “enterprise”. The multiple contacts also stimulated an increase of relevant information. When studying merchants’ professional knowledge, the method of its dissemination is an important issue. Although the idea to obtain a special commercial education was very popular among enlighteners, the merchants continued to acquire it at the “practical school” of commerce, where new skills and knowledge spread much faster.

The changing methodology in historical research and in the humanities makes relevant the study of the patterns of merchant trading in the context of personal relations. Moreover, special attention should be paid to the development of social ties. In this sense the most representative source is the personal correspondence of the merchants, which was practically the only way of communication between the people who were even at a slight distance from each other. The large extant correspondence collection of the Veliky Ustyug merchant family of the Buldakovs covers the period of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. However, the study of social relations only through private correspondence makes it incomplete due to the inevitable omission of important biographical information about the persons mentioned in the letters by the people who knew the subject of conversation. These gaps can be filled by involving clerical materials from various departments. The study leads to the understanding of the significant role of family relations in the life of merchants. Family partnership was the most convenient and stable form of trading organization due to the fact that every partner was confident in the experience and integrity of his companion. In addition, young merchants took their first independent steps in commerce among their relatives, being “at their service”. They obtained the necessary knowledge, established business contacts and learned by the experience of their leaders. Thus, they acquired mental capital for their own trading activities. The merchants relied on the relatives when trusting relationships were needed (in case of lending money or attorney services). Their confidence in the good faith of contractors was determined by the belief that their behavior was regulated by a narrow circle to which they belonged. Moreover, there was no difference between those who were bound by blood ties, and those who were integrated through affinal relationships.